9th of May DAVID RUSSO: PRESENTATION TO THE CITY OF LONG BEACH

Poet David Russo is honored to present his poem, Neighborhood, to the City of Long Beach. Neighborhood was inspired by and written for the residents of the City of Long Beach. It is Russo’s open thank-you letter to a city and a neighborhood that has warmly welcomed and supported him and his biological and chosen family.

David Russo is a retired attorney, enjoying a second career in the creative world. With his husband, Greg Kamerer, and two daughters, Ann and Susan, he moved from upstate New York to Phoenix, AZ, where the family experienced nine difficult years. The sting of prejudice and bigotry led this family to research, then visit, Long Beach. They found here a new home.

A resident of Long Beach for 22 years, Russo describes the city as a welcoming haven that has set no barriers to the happiness and development of his family. He and his husband now have four grandchildren.

Neighborhood is a celebration of the diversity of Long Beach, a city which acknowledges the contributions that every person, every neighborhood, has to offer. This has allowed Long Beach to become one of the country’s great cities, and one that David Russo is proud to call home